Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!apollo!mrst!sdti!turner
From: turner@sdti.SDTI.COM (Prescott K. Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: first class functions (opps)
Message-ID: <454@sdti.SDTI.COM>
Date: 10 May 89 02:43:00 GMT
References: <10253@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <2400023@otter.hpl.hp.com> <451@sdti.SDTI.COM> <24122@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: turner@sdti.UUCP (0006-Prescott K. Turner, Jr.)
Organization: Software Development Technologies, Sudbury MA
Lines: 19


In article <24122@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> laba-4he@e260-4g.berkeley.edu (The Cybermat Rider) writes:
> If I understand you correctly, you consider two functions to be "equal" if
> they are _functionally identical_.  Certain languages I know might allow you
> to write functional equality tests for functions that return numbers, but I
> daresay that it'll be more than a little difficult to compare functions that
> return strings, to say nothing of functions that return functions!  Take
> into account the target functions' side-effects, and the problem now takes on
> gargantuan proportions.

These are the proportions I had in mind, although I'd be quite satisfied
to compare functions that return functions in a language without side-effects.
It should be about as hard as a theorem-proving program.

--
Prescott K. Turner, Jr.
Software Development Technologies, Inc.
P.O. Box 366, Sudbury, MA 01776 USA         (508) 443-5779
UUCP: ...{harvard,mit-eddie}!sdti!turner    Internet: turner@sdti.sdti.com